Columbia Picks New Agency for Tri-Star Ads

Columbia Pictures Entertainment Inc. said Friday that it pulled its Tri-Star Pictures domestic advertising account from the Los Angeles branch of AC&R; Advertising and gave it to McCann-Erickson Worldwide, which now places domestic advertising for the company’s Columbia Pictures unit.

The Tri-Star account, which involves media placement of the studio’s movie ads, is estimated to have billings of between $70 million and $75 million and is believed to be among AC&R; Los Angeles’ largest accounts, if not its largest.

Its loss is a serious blow to AC&R;, a unit of Saatchi & Saatchi Co., which has lost other entertainment accounts in the last few years, most notably NBC Entertainment.

“It’s been going on for a long time, and I have no idea why they changed,” said R. Lynn Livingston, president of AC&R;’s Irvine office.

For McCann, it means a total of $150 million in Columbia billings. McCann prevailed in an account review that included Grey Advertising and Backer Spielvogel Bates. McCann officials could not be reached.

Livingston said the change may have been prompted by the recent $3.4-billion buyout of Columbia Pictures Entertainment by Japan’s Sony Corp. a month ago, but a Columbia spokesman who asked not to be identified said the decision was unrelated to the buyout.

One industry insider, who asked not to be identified, suggested that Tri-Star may have been unhappy with AC&R;’s media planning. Patrick King, who runs AC&R;’s Los Angeles office, could not be reached.

Among Tri-Star’s recent films have been “Steel Magnolias” and “Look Who’s Talking,” while Columbia’s recent films have included “When Harry Met Sally . . .” and “Ghostbusters II.”